The series of Speaker's Lectures were initiated by John Bercow, the Speaker of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, from 2011. To mark the centenary of the Parliament Act 1911, Bercow commissioned a series of 11 lectures throughout 2011 covering some of the main political figures of the century. Each lecture was given to an invited audience in Speaker's House and was recorded for broadcast on BBC Parliament. In 2012 Bercow instituted a new 11 lecture series on the subject of the 'Great Offices of State' (those of Chancellor of the Exchequer, Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary). In 2013 the lectures were on the subject of 'Parliaments and Parliamentarians', given by leading Parliamentarians who have experience of other legislatures. The 2014 series concentrated on individual policy areas.
The subjects were:
David Lloyd George by Lord Morgan, 11 January
F. E. Smith by Sir Peter Tapsell MP, 1 February
Nancy Astor by Shirley Williams, 29 March
Sir Winston Churchill by Nicholas Soames MP, 26 April
Aneurin Bevan by Gordon Marsden MP, 17 May
Enoch Powell by Lord Norton of Louth, 14 June
Michael Foot by Lord Kinnock, 12 July
Iain Macleod by Lord Hurd, 6 September
Roy Jenkins by Lord Adonis, 25 October
Margaret Thatcher by John Whittingdale MP, 15 November
Tony Benn by Tristram Hunt MP, 6 December
In introducing the first lecture, Bercow noted that his assistant had spotted that there were 11 sitting Members who had served in one or more of these offices but had not been Prime Minister, and that all had accepted his invitation to give a lecture. The lecturers were:
Kenneth Clarke (Home Secretary 1992–93, Chancellor of the Exchequer 1993–97), 24 January
Alistair Darling (Chancellor of the Exchequer 2007–10), 20 February
Theresa May (Home Secretary since 2010), 26 March
Malcolm Rifkind (Foreign Secretary 1995–97), 23 April
David Blunkett (Home Secretary 2001–04), 15 May
David Miliband (Foreign Secretary 2007–10), 19 June
Jack Straw (Home Secretary 1997–2001, Foreign Secretary 2001–06), 15 July
Margaret Beckett (Foreign Secretary 2006–07), 11 September
George Osborne (Chancellor of the Exchequer since 2010), 22 October
Alan Johnson (Home Secretary 2009–10), 5 November
William Hague (Foreign Secretary since 2010), 18 December
Parliaments and Parliamentarians lectures
The lecturers were:
Lord Alderdice (Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly 1998-2004), 29 January
Keith Vaz MP on the Parliament of India, February
Lord Steel (Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament 1999-2003), 18 March
Lord Davies of Stamford on the National Assembly of France, April
Lord Boateng on the Parliament of South Africa, Parliament of Ghana and the Parliament of Somaliland, 20 May
Lord Elis-Thomas (Presiding Officer of the National Assembly for Wales 1999–2011), 11 June
Gisela Stuart MP on the German Bundestag, 2 July
Baroness Liddell of Coatdyke on the Parliament of Australia, 28 October
Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne on the European Parliament, 10 December
Baroness Williams of Crosby on the United States Congress, 18 December
The lectures and subjects are:
Lord Norton of Louth on Parliament and Political Parties, 21 January
Dame Tessa Jowell on Parliament and the Press, 25 February
John Redwood on Parliament and Economic Policy, 18 March
Frank Field on Parliament and Social Policy, 8 April
Sir Malcolm Rifkind on Parliament and Foreign Policy and War, May
Tristram Hunt on Parliament and the Crown, June
Lord Heseltine on Parliament and Industrial Policy, 18 June
Harriet Harman on Parliament and Equality, 8 July
Sir Menzies Campbell on Parliament and Justice, September
David Davis on Parliament and Liberty, 22 October
Lord Hennessy on Parliament and the State, 18 November
Sir Tony Baldry on Parliament and the Church, 16 December
The 2015 series covered famous Parliamentarians from history.
William Hague on William Pitt the Younger, 13 January.
Lord Hurd of Westwell on Benjamin Disraeli, 24 March.
Lord Bew on Charles Stewart Parnell, 19 May.
Kwasi Kwarteng on Lord Palmerston, 9 June.
Lord Lexden on the Earl of Shaftesbury, 30 June.
Lord Williams of Elvel on Harold Macmillan, 14 July.
Sir Bill Cash on John Bright, 15 September.
Jesse Norman on Edmund Burke, 27 October.
Lord Norton of Louth on Eleanor Rathbone, 3 November
Lord Cormack on William Wilberforce, 10 November.
Tristram Hunt on John Pym, 8 December.
